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Yoko Kanno's Quake Relief CD Includes Anime Video
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
The animated music video for the "Hana wa Saku" ("Flowers Will Bloom") song by composer Yoko Kanno (Macross Plus/Frontier, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) will be included with the song's CD release on Wednesday. Writer/director Shunji Iwai (All About Lily Chou-Chou, Hana and Alice) and Kanno created the song as the theme for NHK's Great Eastern Japan Earthquake Project, which supports the reconstruction efforts in the areas hardest hit by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster. The video premiered on television last month, the two-year anniversary of the disaster.
Sunao Katabuchi (Black Lagoon, Mai Mai Miracle) directed the 5-minute short at MAPPA with art director Shinichi Uehara (Mai Mai Miracle, Paradise Kiss) and producer Masao Maruyama (Black Lagoon, Tokyo Godfathers). Shizue Kaneko (Doraemon films) oversaw the animation process and adapted the original character designs by manga creator Fumiyo Kōno (Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms).
A separate live-action music video featured 34 singers, celebrities, and sports figures who hail from Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima Prefectures — the prefectures hardest hit by the disasters. (Kanno and Iwai also hail from Miyagi.) A second live-action music video with vocals by child actress Rio Suzuki (Yae no Sakura) and Fukushima Prefecture's Futaba-gun Okuma Elementary School Choir began streaming on March 21.
The CD includes the anime version of the song, an English version, and karaoke tracks. The DVD will have the full anime in three versions (with lyrics, without lyrics, and with the guide melody karaoke track) and the animated music video. The combo will be released on April 17 for 1,500 yen (about US$15).
Source: animeanime.jp
